3 Reasons The Toyota Crown Signia Will Be Successful
Toyota has expanded the Crown family with the addition of the mid-sized Crown Signia SUV for 2025.
Following in the footsteps of the oddball sedan, the Signia marries a near- Lexus interior experience with a Toyota-badged wrapper. Standard all-wheel drive is an increasingly common trait in the two-row, mid-sized segment; the Signia’s standard hybrid powerplant, less so.
After taking the Crown Signia on a road trip for our first drive review, we were left with plenty of additional thoughts and questions about this new model. We’ve boiled them down to three reasons the Signia should be a sales success for Toyota—but those can also be flipped, as reasons buyers might stay away.
It’s a wagon
Good: wagons are the more honest version of what most crossover SUV buyers are actually looking for: a long-roof car with added practicality. The Crown Signia is just that, offering a token inch of extra ground clearance over the sedan and a huge, useful load bay. Wagons have larger greenhouses too, so the extra glass improves visibility. The shape is a breath of fresh air to our eyes, low and wide with an urbane look instead of the faux off-roader vibes found everywhere else. Toyota’s latest design language works well on a larger canvas.
Bad: The only word that scares North American car shoppers more than “minivan” is “wagon.” Toyota doesn’t call the Signia one anywhere on its website, but designers did regularly drop the W-word at the launch event. Should the label stick, buyers may hesitate to drop their hard-earned on a Signia over one of the other SUVs on the Toyota dealership floor.
It defies categorization*
* - We mean, besides that “wagon” one.
Good: In a market that seems to cover just about everything, the Signia has carved out a niche in the two-row segment. Technically it competes against the likes of the Subaru Outback, but it’s a much more premium product, and far better on gas. Jeep Grand Cherokee? It can get fancy too, but that’ll cost you, especially for the 4xe plug-in hybrid, which isn’t the most refined. Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport? A comparative truck. The Nissan Murano and Ford Edge are both so old you’re likely to find them on an archeological dig.
Bad: Buyers could have a hard time squaring away the Signia’s purpose, similar to the tepid response to the Venza a few years ago. “A Lexus RX for less” is a great sound bite, but people who are looking at luxury products generally only settle for… luxury products.
Limited flavors
Good: Toyota isn’t going to weigh folks down with endless choices here. If you dig the vibes the Signia is throwing down, that’s already most of the battle won. There’s just the one, 240-horsepower hybrid powertrain, and standard AWD. America offers two trims: XLE and Limited. Canada goes even simpler: Limited only, with or without the Tech package. Simple.
Bad: No Platinum a la sedan? A Hybrid Max setup would make the Signia a low-key sleeper, but it would also raise the price even closer to Lexus territory. Toyota can’t really move it downmarket, either; not with the Crown name along the tailgate, anyway. This is the brand’s star, its de facto flagship, and a stripped-down SE wouldn’t align with that notion.
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Kyle began his automotive obsession before he even started school, courtesy of a remote control Porsche and various LEGO sets. He later studied advertising and graphic design at Humber College, which led him to writing about cars (both real and digital). He is now a proud member of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC), where he was the Journalist of the Year runner-up for 2021.
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I believe the Signia will sell well. I intend to buy one myself. The only downfall I see, if true, is that Toyota plans to only send 20,000 yearly to the U.S. That means each dealer will get maybe one or two monthly. Now try getting one of these at MSRP.
After 20+ years of “I'm willing to tell you. I'm wanting to tell you. I'm waiting to tell you.”, the industry is very slowly starting to listen and getting closer to what I want to buy. The Signia is almost there, just lower the beltline an inch or two and make the C-pillar smaller so I can have even more glass through which to enjoy the scenery. I'm tired of hearing "there's no market" from a bunch of industry bozos who jumped in and spent billions to produce EV's for which there was, quite literally, no market. I'll be stopping over to my local Toyota dealer, if they ever get a Signia on the lot.